
Class __L_/2:':_ 

Book. ^n^ 

Gopyi1ghtN^_ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSn^ 



WOLLEY'S 
NEW YORK 



Of this edition, two hundred 
and fifty copies have been 
printed, and the type distrib- 
uted. This is 




A TWO YEARS' JOURNAL 
IN NEW YORK -^ and 

PART OF ITS TERRITORIES IN AMERICA 
BY CHARLES WOLLEY, A. M. 



Reprinted from the original edition of 1701 



With an Introduction and Notes by 
EDWARD GAYLORD BOURNE 
Professor of History in Yale University 




CLEVELAND 

The Burrows Brothers Company 

1903 



THE LIBBAftV OF 
COHGRES8, 

Two C0«Ea RtOSIVEO 

SF. 25 1902 

C«.A«8 A XXa No. 

coi»r 8. 



Copyright, 1902 

BY 

The Burrows Brothers Company 



.[\ 



%' 



<$.ht imperial pceflirf 

Cleveland 



INTRODUCTION 



Of the author of this description of New York 
in 1678-80 neither the year of his birth nor the 
date of his death is known. Almost equally scan- 
ty is our knowledge of his life. His modesty 
veiled his authorship of his single contribution to 
literature under his mere initials. His identity 
was not revealed for over a century and a half, 
and then, when his little work again saw the light 
in a modern edition, by a curious fatality or caprice, 
the spelling of his name was changed and was 
entered in bibliographies and catalogues under a 
form which he never used and for which there is 
no authority. 

In the narrative the reader is informed that the 
author sailed from England for New York May 
27, 1678, with Sir Edmund Andros; that he was 
there "minister to the English," and that after 
his return he lived at Alford in Lincolnshire.* 
These statements enabled the historian of New 
York, E. B. O'Callaghan, to identify the writer 
as the Reverend Charles Wolley, for among the 

* Infra, p. 51. 



INTRODUCTION 

" General Entries " in tlie state archives he found 
the following: 

''A Certificate to Mr. Charles Wolley to goe for 
England in the Hopewell. 

"S"" Edmund Andros Kn* &c. Whereas Mr. 
Charles Wolley (a Minister ol the church of Eng- 
land) came over into these parts in the Month of 
August 1678 and hath officiated accordingly as 
Chaplaine under his Royall Highnesse during the 
time of his abode here, Now upon Applicacon for 
leave to returne for England in order to some 
promocon in the church to which hee is presented, 
hee having liberty to proceede on his voyage. 
These are to certify the above and that the s*^ Mr. 
Wolley hath in his place comported himself un- 
blameable in his Life and conversacon. In Testi- 
mony whereof I have hereunto sett my hand and 
Seale of the province in New York this 15*^ day of 
July in the 32**^ yeare of his Matyes Raigne. 
Annoq Dominj 1680. 

''Examined by mee M. N. Seer." * 

Dr. O'Callaghan next learned f that Mr. Wol- 
ley was a graduate of Cambridge University ; and 
inquiry of the authorities of the university 
brought the information that the admission book 

* Historical Magazine, Dec, 1857, p. 371; also in O'Callaghan's 
ed., p. 12. 

t Probably through the inquiry in Notes and Queries, April 23, 
1859, p. 341, and the reply which appeared June 11. 

^6 — 



INTRODUCTION 

of Emmanuel College contained the entry: "Ch. 
Wolley of Line, admitted sizar 13 June, 1670." 
The degree books show that he was graduated 
bachelor of arts in January, 1674, and that he 
received his M.A. in July, 1677. In his signa- 
tures at the time of receiving his degrees his name 
is written in a hand as legible as print: Charles 
Wolleij* These signatures, together with the 
collegiate records and the certificate of Governor 
Andros, leave no room for doubt as to the proper 
spelling of the name. 

Of the life of the youthful garrison chaplain in 
New York — the first clergyman of the church of 
England to hold a charge in that province — we 
have no knowledge beyond what is contained in 
his "Journal" and in the certificate of Governor 
Andros. Curiously enough, however, we do have 
a curt and unsympathetic description of a service 
that he conducted. In 1679 two representatives 
of the Labadists, a sect in Holland somewhat 
similar to the Quakers, came to America to find, 
if possible, an eligible place for a colony. Of 
their travels in New England, New York, and 
New Jersey, one of them, Jasper Bankers, wrote 
a detailed journal which is the fullest, most inter- 
esting, and most instructive narrative of travel in 
New York that we possess for this period. In this 
journal Bankers' s entry for October 15, 1679, is: 

* Tracings are given in O'Callaghan's ed., p. lo. 

— 7 — 



INTRODUCTION 

"We went at noon today to hear the English 
minister, whose services took place after the Dutch 
was out. There were not above twenty-five or 
thirty people in the church. The first thing that 
occurred was the reading of all their prayers and 
ceremonies out of the prayer-book, as is done in 
all Episcopal churches. A young man then went 
into the pulpit and commenced preaching, who 
thought he was performing wonders ; but he had 
a little book in his hand out of which he read his 
sermon which was about a quarter of an hour or 
half an hour long. With this the services were 
concluded, at which we could not be sufficiently 
astonished." * 

Of Mr. Wolley's life after his return to England 
we know nothing except that he lived for a while 
in Alford in Lincolnshire, where he seems on occa- 
sion to have conducted service, f His preface 
indicates that he gave up preaching. He evi- 
dently failed to secure the promotion he hoped 
for, and the absence of his name from all the rec- 
ords of the diocese of Lincoln precludes the sup- 
position that he held a benefice at Alford. j: As 

* ' ' Journal of a Voyage to New York and a Tour in Several of the 
American Colonies in 1679-80. By Jasper Bankers and Peter Sluyter 
of Wiewerd in Friesland. Translated from the original manuscript 
in Dutch for the Long Island Historical Society, and edited by 
Henry C. Murphy." Brooklyn, 1867, p. 148. 

\ Infra, p. 51- 

X See the letter of the bishop of Lincoln in O'Callaghan's ed., p. 14. 



INTRODUCTION 

the years went by, he fondly recurred to his early 
experiences in New York and, finally, in the 
absence of other occupation and to supply an 
obvious need, he took up the composition of a nar- 
rative of his observations in the distant colony. 

That he failed to complete his design seems 
certain. His preface refers to what we have as 
Parti., and the concluding sentences of the text 
also look to a continuation. More specific is the 
indication on page 62 that the second part would 
treat of the conversion of the Indians. But 
whether this first essay was not a successful ven- 
ture and the failure discouraged the writer, or 
whether death cut short his labors, cannot be 
known. Dr. O'Callaghan noted the presence of 
the name " Charles WoUey" in the list of those 
admitted to citizenship in New York in 1703, and 
ventured the conjecture that possibly our author 
returned to America. There seems to be little 
ground for this supposition. The Charles Wolley 
admitted to citizenship was a merchant, and appa- 
rently was in New York in 1701, the year of the 
publication of our Charles Wolley' s "Journal." * 

Yet we are not left so entirely in the dark in 

* See Lists of Burghers of New Amsterdam and of Freemen of 
New York in the " Collections of the New York Historical Society," 
1885, p. 85. The actual date of the admission of Charles Wolley to 
citizenship was Dec. 2, 1702. The name " C. Wolley" is signed to 
a " Petition of the Protestants of New York to King William III.," 
dated Dec. 30, 1701. — " Documents Relating to the Colonial History 
of New York," vol. iv., p. 934. 



INTRODUCTION 

regard to the real Charles Wolley as the absence 
of records of the external facts of his life might 
lead one to suppose. His character and intellec- 
tual tastes leave their clear impress upon his 
pages. The self -depreciation of his preface, and 
the modest retirement behind his initials in com- 
ing before the public as an author, reveal an 
unassuming disposition. A truly liberal spirit 
and a kindly humanity lighted up with a quiet 
humor are disclosed by the incident of the dinner 
at which he brought together for social intercourse 
the Lutheran and Calvinist dominies who, inher- 
iting the "virulent and bigotted Spirits" of 
Luther and Calvin, had not spoken to each other 
for six years. The easy discursive style, with its 
digressions and irrelevancies ; the quaint phraseol- 
ogy, often an unobtrusive echo in its pedantries 
of Sir Thomas Brown; the bits of Latin verse; 
the vein of physiological metaphor and the cita- 
tion of medical writers — all reflect the simple, 
bookish life of a cultivated gentleman whose writ- 
ing is more like easy rambling conversation than 
is the case with the professional author, and whose 
taste for medical literature may have been a not 
unnatural outcome of his "valetudinary constitu- 
tion." 

To the retired scholar recalling the two years 
spent in New York nothing stood out so clearly or 
seemed so worthy of portrayal as those "perfect 

— lO — 



INTRODUCTION 

Adamites," the Indians, and so to them he 
devotes most of his attention, recording both his 
own observations and information derived from 
an Indian friend and from the governor's inter- 
preter. * Nor was this choice of material strange, 
for the New York of that day was a frontier town 
and its main interests to ^ European observer 
would be those native to the soil. Of the city 
itself he says so little that it will not be out of 
place to restore from other contemporary descrip- 
tions enough to furnish a setting for his comments. 
Of Manhattan Island not more than one-half 
was yet under cultivation, f The rest was still 
good woodland. The population of the little town 
at the lower end numbered about 3500.:}: The 
houses were mainly of brick and stone.** The 
slender total of the year's commerce of the future 
metropolis of the new world would constitute now 
but a fraction of a cargo for one of its ocean 
steamers, ff Property of from five hundred to one 

*That Mr. Wolley drew upon Denton's " Brief Description of 
New York " for some of his material relating to the natural features 
of the country will appear in the notes. Cf. infra, pp. 44, 57. 

fDankers and Sluyter's " Journal," p. 135. 

% Brodhead's estimate based upon the number of houses, which 
was 343. — " History of the State of New York," vol. ii., p. 318. 

** ' ' New York is built most of Brick and Stone, and covered with 
red and black Tile." — Denton, p. 40 (Burrows ed.). 

It " There may lately have traded to y^ Collony in ayeare from tenn 
to fifteen shipps or vessells of about togeather 100 tuns each." — 
Governor Andros's statement to the Board of Trade, April, 1678. 
" Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York," vol. 
iii., p. 261. 

— II — 



INTRODUCTION 

thousand pounds gave a man the standing of " a 
good substantial! merchant." * The description 
which Jasper Bankers gives of the primitive trade 
is typical of the frontier. "I must here remark, 
in passing, that the people in this city, who are 
most all traders in small articles, whenever they 
see an Indian enter the house, who they know has 
any money, they immediately set about getting 
hold of him, giving him rum to drink, whereby he 
is soon caught and becomes half a fool. If he 
should then buy anything, he is doubly cheated — 
in the wares and in the price. He is then urged 
to buy more drink, which they now make half 
water, and if he cannot drink it, they drink it 
themselves. They do not rest until they have 
cajoled him out of all his money, or most of it; 
and if that cannot be done in one day, they keep 
him, and let him lodge and sleep there, but in 
some out-of-the-way place, down on the ground, 
guarding their merchandise and other property in 
the meantime, and always managing it so that 
the poor creature does not go away before he has 
given them all they want." f 

Bankers thus describes a journey to Harlem: 
"We went from the city, following the Broadway, 
over the valey^ or the fresh water. Upon both 
sides of this way were many habitations of negroes, 

* Ibid. 

•j-Dankers and Sluyter's " Journal, " pp. 152-153. 

— 12 — 



INTRODUCTION 

mulattoes, and whites. These negroes were for- 
merly the proper slaves of the [West India] com- 
pany, but, in consequence of the frequent changes 
and conquests of the country, they have obtained 
their freedom and settled themselves down where 
they thought proper, and thus on this road, where 
they have ground enough to live on with their 
families. We left the village called the Bouwerij, 
lying on the right hand, and went through the 
woods to New Harlem, a tolerably large village 
situated on the south side of the island, directly 
opposite the place where the northeast creek and 
the East River come together, situated about three 
hours' journey from New Amsterdam, like as old 
Harlem, in Europe, is situated about three hours 
distance from old Amsterdam."* 

To the young clergyman fresh from his studies 
and from the rigorously enforced conformity to 
the church of England the religious complexion 
of New York must have seemed strange indeed. 
"New York has," wrote Governor Dongan less 
than ten years later, ' ' first a Chaplain belonging 
to the Fort of the Church of England ; secondly, 
a Dutch Calvinist, thirdly a French Calvinist, 
fourthly a Dutch Lutheran. Here bee not many 
of the Church of England ; few Roman Catholicks ; 
abundance of Quakers preachers men & Women 
especially; Singing Quakers, Ranting Quakers; 

* Ibid., pp. 136-137, 

— 13 — 



INTRODUCTION 

Sabbatarians; Antisabbatarians ; Some Anabap- 
tists some Independents; some Jews; in short of 
all sorts of opinions there are some, and the most 
part of none at all. . . . The most prevailing 
opinion is that of the Dutch Calvinists." * 

Such was the community which our author 
found "very civil and courteous," and in which 
he ' ' comported himself unblameable in his Life 
and conversacon." 

In regard to the text of the present reprint of 
"A Two Years' Journal in New York," it is 
only necessary to say that it is an exact transcript 
of that of the original edition, with the exception 
that the use of the long "s" has been discarded. 

The original is found with two imprints as will 
be seen from the facsimile title-pages. The Lon- 
don imprint for John Wyat and Eben Tracy is 
apparently the original and primary one ; for the 
copies which are inscribed as printed for Dicken- 
son Boys in Lowth and George Barton in Boston 
contain a catalogue, paged continuously with the 
text, of books for sale by Eben Tracy at the Three 
Bibles on London Bridge. The paging of the 
original edition in several copies, and presumably 
in all, is wrongly numbered as follows: pp. 97-104 
are numbered as 87, 88, 81, 82, 95, 96, 89, 90. This 



• Governor Dongan's Report on the Province of New York, 1687. 
" Documentary History of the State of New York," vol. i., p. 186. 

— 14 — 



INTRODUCTION 

is true of the two British Museum copies and of 
the Lenox copy. The text of Wolley's narrative 
ends on p. 81 (i.e., p. 99), and the remaining five 
pages are filled with a list of books for sale by 
Eben Tracy and a description of a balsam from 
Peru whose virtues are highly extolled. 

The reprint published by William Gowans of 
New York in 1860 under the editorial care of Dr. 
E. B. O'Callaghan follows the text of the original 
with perfect exactness — except in the matter of 
the long " s " and the use of italics — save for the 
single misprint of Macculoso instead of Macculosa, 
p. 31. Dr. O'Callaghan enriched this edition 
with copious genealogical and antiquarian notes. 
Annotations drawn from his notes will be fol- 
lowed in the present edition by the initials " O' C. " 

At the time of the issue of his reprint, Mr, 
Gowans advertised a copy of the original edition for 
$63 and recorded in the announcement: "I have 
heard of no copy being in the possession of any of 
the veteran collectors of rare American books on 
this continent, with the exception of one in the 
extensive collection of John Carter Brown, Esq., 
of Providence, Rhode Island." Ten years later 
Allibone knew of only three copies. Since then 
others have emerged from their obscurity and 
found their way into the hands of dealers or of 
collectors. 

As has been indicated above, "C. W." was 

— 15 — 



INTRODUCTION 

identified by Dr. O'Callaghan as Charles Wolley, 
and in the text of his introductory essay the name 
ia uniformly spelled "Wolley." On the title- 
page, however, and on the cover the spelling 
" Wooley " is given. Apparently this was simply 
an error,* but as catalogues and bibliographies 
follow title-pages the author's name has gone into 
these repositories and into the references of many 
secondary writers as Charles Wooley. In the 
present edition the name is restored to its proper 
form and it is to be hoped that the consequences 
of Gowans's error or caprice gradually may be 
effaced. 

Edward Gaylord Bourne. 

*This was Brodhead's view, who says of Gowans's reprint, he 
"misprints the name 'Woolev'." — "History of the State of New 
York," vol. ii., p. 332. As Brodhead knew O'Callaghan well, his 
attributing the arbitrary change of spelling to Gowans is probably 
more than a conjecture. On the other hand, the name is spelled 
"Wooley" in O'Callaghan's last note, p. 97. 



16 



WOLLEY'S NEW YORK 

LONDON 

JOHN WYAT AND EBEN TRACY 

1 701 



LONDON 

DICKENSON BOYS AND GEORGE BARTON 

1 701 



Title-page (second imprint) and text reprinted 

from a copy of the original edition in the 

Lenox Library, New York City. 

Title-page (first imprint) reprinted from a copy of 

the original edition in the John Carter Brown 

Library, Providence, Rhode Island. 



^x: 



?f. 



A two Years 

J0U 





And part of its 

TERRITORIES 

.IN 

AMERICA. 



By C W. A. M. 



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Pfjnted for "^-ohn IJ'yat , at t\\eP^o[e iii 
St.P.rars Church-Yard.-and Ebm 'if/igy, 
at the three hibks on LoitdonrBridge* 
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JOURNAL 




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■ ■""-■ '■'■ " 









TO THE READER. 



The materials of this Journal have laid by me 
several years expecting that some Landlooper or 
other in those parts ivould have done it more 
methodically y hut neither hearing nor reading of 
any such as yet^ and I being taken off from the 
proper Studies and Offices of my Function^ for 
my unprofitableness, I co7icluded, that when I could 
not do what I ought, I ought to do what I could, 
which I shall further endeavour in a second Part: 
in the mean ivhile, adieu. 



— 23 — 



TWO YEARS JOURNAL 



IN 



NEW YORK. &C 



In the year 1678, May the 27, we set sail from 
old England for New-York in America, in the 
Merchants Ship called the Blossom, Richard 
Maria in of New-England Master. We had on 
board Sir Ednmnd Andres, Governor of New- York, 
Merchants and Factors, Mr. William Pinhorne, 
Mr. James Graha?n, Mr. John White, Mr. John 
West and others; the 7th of August following we 
arriv'd safe at Neiv-York. 

The City of Neiv-York, by Dr. Heylin* and other 
Cosmographers, is call'd New •Amsterdam, and 
the Country New-Netherla?ids, being first in- 
habited by a Colony of Dutch ; but as first dis- 
cover' d by the English it was claim' d to the Crown 
of England by Colonel Nichols, in the year 1665, 
then sent over Governor ; to whom it was surren- 
dred by the Dutch upon Articles; it being a 
fundamental Point consented unto by all Nations, 

*The earlier editions of Heylin's " Cosmographie " appeared 
before the English conquest of New Netherlands. 

— 25 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

That the first discovery of a Country inhabited by 
Infidels, gives a right and Dominion of that Coun- 
try to the Prince in whose Service and Employ- 
ment the discoverers were sent ; thus the Spaniard 
claims the West-Indies ; the Portugals Brasile ; 
and thus the English those Northern parts of 
America ; for Sebastian Cabot employed by K. 
Hen. 7th, was the first discoverer of those parts, 
and in his name took Possession, which his Royal 
Successors have held and continu'd ever since: 
Therefore they are of the Crown of England, and 
as such they are accounted by that excellent 
Lawyer Sir John Vaughan : So this particular 
Province being granted to his then Royal -High- 
ness the D. of York, by Letters Patents from King 
Charles the 11. was from his title and Propriety 
call'd New- York. 

The Fort and Garrison of this place lieth in the 
degree of 40th and 20 minutes of northern Lati- 
tude, as was observ'd and taken by Mr. Andrew 
Norwood, Son of the Famous Mathematician of 
that name, and by Mr. Philip Wells, and Van 
Cortland Junior, Robert Rider and Jacobus Ste- 
phens, the seventh of July 1679, with whom I 
was well acquainted, and at that time present 
with them. 

The Temperature of the Climate. 
By the Latitude above observ'd, New- York lieth 

— 26 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

10 Degrees more to the Southward than Old Eng- 
land ; by which difference according to Philosophy 
it should be the hotter Climate, but on the con- 
trary, to speak feelingly, I found it in the Winter 
Season rather colder for the most part : the reason 
of which may be the same with that which Sir 
Henry Woffon* gives for the coldness of Venice, 
as he observ'd from the experience of fourteen 
years Embassie, viz. Though Venice be seated in 
the very middle point, between the Equinoctial 
and the northern Pole, at 45 degrees precisely, or 
there abouts, of Latitude, yet their winters are 
for the most part sharper than ours in England, 
though about six degrees less of Elevation, which 
he imputed to its vicinity or nigh Situation to the 
chilly tops of the Alps, for Winds as well as 
Waters are tainted and infected in their passage. 
New-York in like manner is adjacent to and 
almost encompass' d with an hilly, woody Country, 
full of Lakes and great Vallies, which receptacles 
are the Nurseries, Forges and Bellows of the Air, 
which they first suck in and contract, then dis- 
charge and ventilate with a fiercer dilatation. 
The huge lake of Canada, which lies to the north- 
ward of New-York, is supposed to be the most 
probable place for dispersing the cold Northwest- 
winds which alter the nature of this Climate, 
insomuch that a thick winter Coat there is com- 

* Ambassador to Venice for many years between 1604 and 1624. 

— 27 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

monly called a Northwestern : So that the Conse- 
quence which Men make in common discourse 
from the Degree of a place to the temper of it, is 
indeed very deceivable, without a due regard to 
other circumstances; for as I have read in the 
Philosophical Transactions, the order of the sea- 
sons of the year is quite inverted under the torrid 
Zone, for whereas it should be then Summer when 
the Sun is near, and Winter when the Sun is 
farther of; under the torrid Zone it's never less 
hot than when the Sun is nearest ; nor more hot 
than when the Sun is farthest off; so that to 
the people who live between the Equinoctial and 
the Tropicks, Summer begins about Christmas, 
and their Winter about St. John's day, the reason 
whereof is that when the Sun is directly over their 
heads, it raises abundance of Vapours, and draws 
them so high that they are presently converted 
into water by the coldness of the Air; whence it 
comes to pass that then it rains continually, which 
does repress the Air; but when the Sun is farther 
off there falls no more Rain, and so the heat 
becomes insupportable ; but besides these Observa- 
tions and Philosophical Solutions, give me leave 
to offer one Consideration to the Inhabitants of 
the Northern parts of England, viz. Whether they 
have not taken notice for the several years past 
of some alteration in the Seasons of the year ; that 
the Winters have been earlier, colder and longer, 

— 28 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

and the Summers shorter than formerly within 
their own memories; for which I think I may 
appeal to the Gardeners. Especially as to the 
fruit of the Vine, no Grapes having come to their 
maturity or perfection in the same Gardens they 
used to do : Now to what reasons shall we impute 
these, shall we say in the words of that Scribe of 
the Law, Esdras, The world hath lost his youth, 
and the times begin to tvax old, for look how much 
the world shall he weaker through age? Or shall 
we apologize with Dr. Hakewell, in his Power and 
Providence in the Government of the World?* For 
my part I humbly submit to the Virtuoso's of 
Natural and Divine Philosophy; rather than 
embarass and envelop my self in prying within 
the Curtains of the Primitive Chaos, or the Womb 
of the Creation, or the dark Orb of Futurities. 

Of the Air. 
It's a Climate of a Sweet and wholesome breath, 
free from those annoyances which are commonly 
ascribed by Naturalists for the insalubrity of any 
Country, viz. South or South-east Winds, many 
stagnant Waters, lowness of shoars, inconstancy 
of Weather, and the excessive heat of the Sum- 
mer; the extremity of which is gently refresh' d, 

*Dr. George Hakewill's " Apologie or Declaration of the Power 
and Providence of God in the Government of the World," etc., 3rd 
ed., Oxford, 1635, examined and censured "the common errour 
touching Nature's perpetual! and Universal Decay." 

— 29 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

fann'd and allay' d by constant breezes from the 
Sea ; it does not welcome its Guests and Strangers 
with the seasoning distempers of Fevers and 
Fluxes, like Vi?^ginia, Maryland, and other Plan- 
tations, nature kindly drains and purgeth it by 
Fontanels* and Issues of running waters in its 
irriguous Valleys, and shelters it with the umbrel- 
la' s of all sorts of Trees from pernicious Lakes ; 
which Trees and Plants do undoubtedly, tho' 
insensibly suck in and digest into their own 
growth and composition, those subterraneous 
Particles and Exhalations, which otherwise wou'd 
be attracted by the heat of the Sun and so become 
matter for infectious Clouds and malign Atmos- 
pheres, and tho we cannot rely upon these causes 
as permanent and continuing, for the longer and 
the more any Country is peopled, the more un- 
healthful it may prove, by reason of Jaques,f 
Dunghills and other excrementitious stagnations, 
which offend and annoy the bodies of Men, by 
incorporating with, and infecting the circumam- 
bient Air, but these inconveniencies can scarce be 
suppos'd to happen within our age, for the very 
settling and inhabiting a new Country, which is 
commonly done by destroying its Wood, and that 
by Fire (as in those parts I describe) does help to 

* Fontanels — a medical metaphor ; a fontanel is " an artificial ulcer 
or a natural issue for the discharge of humours from the body." — 
Murray's " New Eng. Diet." 

tjaques = Jakes. 

— 30 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

purifie and refine the Air; an experiment and 
remedy formerly us'd in Greece and other Nations, 
in the time of Plague or any common infection. 
To conclude this Chapter, I my self, a person 
seemingly of a weakly Stamen and a valetudinary 
Constitution, was not in the least indispos'd in 
that Climate, during my residence there, the space 
of three years: This account and description of 
the place, I recommend as a fair encouragement, 
to all who are inclined to Travel; to which I shall 
subjoin other inviting Advantages and Curiosities 
in their proper places. 

Of the Inhabitants. And first of the Indians or Natives. 

There are a clan of highflown Religionists, who 
stile the Indians the Pop id as Terrce, and look 
upon them as a reprobate despicable sort of crea- 
tures: But making the allowances for their invin- 
cible ignorance, as to a reveal' d Education, I 
should rather call them the Terrce filii: For 
otherwise I see no difference betwixt them and the 
rest of the Noble Animals. They are stately and 
well proportioned in Symmetry through the whole 
Oeconomy of their bodies, so that I cannot say 
I observed any natural def onnity in any of them ; 
which probably may be owing to their way of 
nurturing their new born infants : which is thus, 
as soon as a Woman is delivered, she retires into 
the Wood for a burden or bundle of sticks, which 

— 3 1 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

she takes upon her back to strengthen her; the 
Children they Swaddle upon a Board, which they 
hang about their heads, and so carry them for a 
year together, or till they can go, this I had con- 
firm' d to me, by my friend Mr. WiUiaui Asfordhy, 
who lived in those parts sixteen years, and had 
for his Neighbour one Harman the Indian in 
Marble- Toivn, in the County of Ulster, formerly 
called Sopus, * in the Province of New- York, whose 
Squaw or Wife us'd this way to her self and Chil- 
dren: In nursing their Children, the Mother 
abhors that unnatural and Costly Pride of suck- 
ling them with other Breasts, whilst her own are 
sufficient for that affectionate service ; their hardi- 
ness and facility in bringing forth is generally 
such as neither requires the nice attendance of 
Nursekeepers, nor the art of a dextrous Lifcina, 
being more like the Hebrew Women than the 
native ^Egyptians, delivered before the Midwife 
can come to them ; like that Irisli Woman of whom 
Dr. Harvy\ de generatione Animalium, Cap. de 
partu. Page 276, reports from the mouth of the 
Lord Carew, Earl of Totness and Lord President 
of Munster, who though big with Child accom- 

* The district of Sopus or Esopus was organized into a county in 
1683 and named Ulster. — O'C. 

fThe celebrated discoverer of the circulation of the blood. Har- 
vey's " Exercitationes de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis " was published 
in 1628, and his "Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium " in 
1651. 

— 32 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

panied her Husband in the Camp, marching from 
place to place, but by reason of a sudden flood 
which hindered their Armies march for one hour, 
the Woman's pains coming upon her, she with- 
drew her- self to a thicket of Shrubs, and there 
alone brought forth Twins, both of which she 
brought down to the River and wash'd both her- 
self and them, wrapping them up in a course and 
Irish Mantle, marches with them at her back, the 
same day barefoot and barelegged twelve Miles, 
without any prejudice to herself or them. The 
next day after, the Lord Deputy Montjoy, who at 
that time commanded the Army against the 
Spaniard, who had besieged Kinsale, with the 
Lord Careii\ stood God-fathers for the Children; 
but I cannot say of them as it is related of the 
Queen of Navarre,* Mother to Henri/ of France, 
called the Great, who sung a French Song in the 
time of his Birth, seeming to show other Women, 
that it is possible to be brought to bed without 
crying out. 

As to their Stature, most of them are between 
five or six foot high, straight bodied, strongly 
composed, in complexion perfect Adamites ; f of a 

* This anecdote is related by the historian Palma Cayet who was a 
member of the household of the queen of Navarre and under-tutor 
to Prince Henry. See Petitot, " Coll. des M6ms. de I'Histoire de 
France," vol. xxxix., p. 234. 

fThe traditional etymology of Adam. "This man was called 
Adam, which in the Hebrew tongue signifies one that is ' red ', 

— 33 — 



W O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

clayish colour, the Hair of their Heads generally 
black, lank and long, hanging down. And I have 
been several times amongst them, and could never 
observe any one shap'd either in redundance or 
defect, deformed or mishapen. They preserve 
their Skins smooth by anointing them with the 
Oyl of Fishes, the fat of Eagles, and the grease of 
Rackoons, which they hold in the Summer the 
best Antidote to keep their skins from blistering 
by the scorching Sun, their best Armour against 
the Musketto's; the surest expeller of the hairy 
Excrement, and stopper of the Pores of their 
Bodies against the Winter's cold, their Hair being 
naturally black, they make it more so, by oyling, 
dying and dayly dressing, yet though they be 
very curious about the Hair of their Heads, yet 
they will not endure any upon their Chins, where 
it no sooner grows but they take it out by the 
Roots, counting it a spurious and opprobrious 
excrement: Insomuch, that the Aberginians* or 
Northern Indians in New-England, call him an 
English-man's Bastard, that hath but the appear- 
ance of a Beard ; so that I leave it to the other Sex : 
Judicat ex mento non mente puella maritum. 

because he was formed out of red earth compounded together ; for 
that kind is virgin and true earth." — Josephus, " Antiquities of the 
Jews," book i., chap. i. 

*This name is also found in Hutchinson's " Hist, of Mass.," vol. 
i., p. 407, in the same sense. Probably a corruption of " abor- 
igines." — O'C. 

— 34 — 



W O L L £ Y ' S NEW YORK 

Of their Apparel. 

Notwithstanding the heat of parching Sum- 
mers, and the searching cold of piercing Winters, 
and the tempestuous dashings of driving Rains, 
their ordinary habit is a pair of Indian Breeches, 
like Adam's Apron to cover that which modesty 
commands to be hid, which is a piece of Cloth 
about a yard and a half long, put between their 
groins, tied with a Snake's Skin about their 
middle, and hanging down with a flap before, 
many of them wear skins about them in fashion 
of an Irish Mantle and of these some be Bears 
Skins and Rackoon Skins sewed or skuered 
together ; but of late years, since they trade with 
the English and Dutch, they wear a sort of Blan- 
ket, which our Merchants call Duffles, which is 
their Coat by day and covering by night, I have 
heard of some reasons given why they will not 
conform to our English Apparel, viz. because 
their Women cannot wash them when they are 
soiled, and their means will not reach to buy new, 
when they have done with their old, therefore 
they had rather go as they do, than be lowsie and 
make their bodies more tender by a new acquired 
habit, but they might be easily divested of these 
reasons, if they were brought to live in Houses 
and fix' d Habitations, as I shall shew hereafter. 
Though in their habit they seem to be careless 

— 35 — 



W O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

and indifferent, yet they have an instinct of nat- 
ural Pride, which appears in their circumstantial 
Ornaments, many of them wearing Pendants at 
their Ears, and Porcupine-quills through their 
Noses, impressing upon several parts of their 
bodies Portraictures of Beasts and Birds, so that 
were I to draw their Effigies it should be after the 
pattern of the Ancient Bntains, called Pids from 
painting, and Br it a ins from a word of their own 
Language, Breeth, Painting or Staining, as Isidore 
writes, with whom Mr. Camhden concurs; though 
Dr. Skimier* in his Efymologicon 0?iomasticon, a 
Bri. honor & Tain fluvius, Insula fluviis nohilis : 
But to leave these Authors in their own critical 
ingenuity, I shall conclude this Chapter with a 
general Sentiment of such Customs that by these 
variety of Pictures depourtraicted in their Bodies ; 
they are either ambitious to illustrate and set off 
their natural Symmetry, or to blazon their Her- 
aldry, which a certain Author calls Macculosa 
Nohilifas : Or else to render them terrible and 
formidable to all Strangers: or if we may conjec- 



*The " Etymologiarum Libri XX," of Isidore of Seville, who died 
in the year 636, served during the earlier middle ages as a general 
encyclopedia of knowledge. The " Britannia " of William Camden, 
first published in Latin in 1586 and subsequently in various English 
editions, was a general work on the antiquities of England and one 
of the most important products of historical scholarship of the six- 
teenth century. Stephen Skinner's " Etymologicon Lingua; Angli- 
canae," London, 167 1, served as the principal authority on English 
etymology until the nineteenth century. 

-36- 



WOLLEY'SNEW YORK 

ture out of that Rabbinical Critick the Oxford 
Gregory* upon Cain's Thau, that according to the 
natural Magicians and Cabbalists, Adaw and the 
rest of mankind in his right, had marks imprinted 
upon them by the finger of God, which marks 
were, imchad and ciiesed ; the first to keep the 
Beasts in awe of Men; the latter to keep Men in 
love one with another. Whether there be any 
remains of a traditional imitation in the Indian 
World or not, I leave that and other conjectures 
to the Readers diversion. 

Of their Traffich, Money, and Diet 

They live principally by Hunting, Fishing and 
Fowling. Before the Christians especially the 
Dutch came amongst them they were very dexter- 
ous Artists at their Bows, insomuch I have heard 
it afiirm'd that a Boy of seven years old would 
shoot a Bird flying: and since they have learn' d 
the use of Guns, they prove better marksmen 
than others, and more dangerous too (as appear' d 
in the Indian War with New -England.) The 
Skins of all their Beasts, as Bears, Bevers, Rac- 
koons. Foxes, Otters; Musquashes, Skunks, Deer 
and Wolves, they bring upon their backs to New- 
Yorh, and other places of Trade, which they barter 

*See " Notes and Observations upon Some Passages of Scripture. 
By John Gregorie, Master of Arts, Christ Church, Oxon." London, 
1684, pp. 67-68. 

— 37 — 



IV O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

and exchange for Duffles or Guns, but too often 
for Rum, Brandy and other strong Liquors, of 
which they are so intemperate lovers, that after 
they have once tasted, they will never forbear, 
till they are inflamed and enraged, even to that 
degree, that I have seen Men and their Wives 
Bill'mgsgate it, through the Streets of Neiv-York, 
as if they were metamorphosed into the nature of 
those beasts whose Skins they bartered: It 
were seriously to be wished that the Christians 
would be more sparing in the sale of that Liquor, 
which works such dismal effects upon those 
who are for gratifying their sensual Appetites: 
Being unacquainted with the comforts of 
Christian Temperance, and the elevated Doc- 
trine of Self-denial and Mortification. They 
had better take to their primitive Beverage 
of water, which some Vertuoso's tell us breed 
no Worms in the Belly nor Maggots in the 
Brain. 

Their Money is called Wampam and Sea-want, 
made of a kind of Cockle or Periwinkle -shell, of 
which there is scarce any, but at Oyster-Bay. 
They take the black out of the middle of the shell 
which they value as their Gold ; they make their 
White Wampam or Silver of a kind of a Horn, 
which is beyond Oyster -hay : The meat within 
this horny fish is very good. They fashion both 
sorts like beads, and String them into several 

-38- 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

lengths, but the most usual measure is a Fathom ; 
for when they make any considerable bargain, 
they usually say so many Fathom; So many black 
or so many white Wampams make a farthing, a 
penny, and so on: which Wmnpam or Indian 
Money we valued above the Spanish or English 
Silver in any Payments, because of trading with 
the Indians in their own Coin. The price of 
Indian Commodities as sold by the Christian 
Merchants is as followeth. 

s. d. 
Bevers —00—10—3 a Pound. 
The Lapps —00—07—6 
Minks —00—05-0 

Grey Foxes— 00— 03— 
Otters —00—08—0 

Rackoons —00—01—5 

Bever is fifteen pence a Skin Custom at New- 
York, four pence at London ; three pence a Skin 
Freight, which is after the rate of fifteen Pound 
a Tun. 

The value of other Skins, a Deer Skin 00—00—6 
a p. A good Bear Skin will give 00 — 07 — 0. A 
black Bever-skin is worth a Bever and a half of 
another colour. A black Otter's -skin, if very 
good, is worth Twenty Shillings. A Fisher' s- 
skin three shillings. A Cat's-skin half a Crown. 
A Wolf's-skin three shillings. A Musquash or a 

— 39 — 



W O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

Muskrat's-skin six shillings and ten pence. An 
Oxe-hide three pence a pound wet and six pence 
dry. Rum in Barbados ten pence a Gallon. 
Molossus* three pence a pound, and fifty shillings 
a barrel in winter, that being the dearest season. 
Sugar in Barbados twelve shillings the hundred 
which contains a hundred and twelve pounds; 
which at New- York yields thirty shillings the bare 
hundred. In Barbados (new Negro's i. e. such 
as cannot speak English) are bought for twelve or 
fourteen pound a head, but if they can speak 
English sixteen or seventeen pound; and at 
New -York, if they are grown Men, they give 
thirty five and thirty or forty Pound a head; 
where by the by let me observe that the Indians 
look upon these Negroes or Blacks as an anoma- 
lous Issue, meer Edomites, hewers of Wood and 
drawers of Water, f 

The Price of Provisions: Long-Island Wheat 
three shillings a Skipple:^ (^ Skipple being three 
parts of a Bushel) Sopus Wheat half a Crown a 
Skipple, Sopus Pease half a Crown a Skipple; 
Indian Corn Flower fifteen shillings a hundred, 
Bread 18 a hundred. To Barbados 50s. a Tun 
freight, 4 Hogsheads to a Tun; Pork 31. the bar- 
rel, which contains two hundred and 40 pounds, 

* Molossus = molasses. 

IJosh., ix., 2o. 

% Skipple ^ Dutch Schepel. 

— 40 — 



W O L L £ Y ' S N E IV YORK 

i. e. 3d. the pound; Beef 308. the barrel; Butter 
6d. a Pound: amongst Provisions I may reckon 
Tobacco, of which they are obstinate and inces- 
sant Smoakers, both Indians and Dutch, espe- 
cially the latter, whose Diet especially of the 
boorish sort, being Sallets and Bacon, and very 
often picked buttermilk, require the use of that 
herb to keep their phlegm from coagulating and 
curdling. I once saw a pretty instance relating 
to the power of Tobacco, in two Dutchmen riding 
a race with short campaigne Pipes in their 
mouths, one of which being hurl'd from his Steed, 
as soon as he gathered himself up again, whip'd 
to his Pipe, and fell a sucking and drawing, 
regarding neither his Horse nor Fall, as if the 
prize consisted in getting that heat which came 
from his beloved smoke: They never burn their 
Pipes, but as soon as they are out put them into 
their Pockets, and now and then wash them. 
The Indians originally made Pipes of Flint, and 
have some Pipes of Steel ; they take the leaves of 
Tobacco and rub them betwixt their hands, and 
so smoke it; Tobacco is two pence halfpenny a 
pound, a merchantable Hogshead contains four 
hundred pound neat, i. e. without the Cask. A 
Dutch pound contains eighteen ounces. Pipe 
staves are fifty shillings or three pound a thou- 
sand, they are sent from Netv- York to the Madera 
Islands and Barbados, the best is made of White 

-^41 — 



W O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

Oak. Their best Liquors are Fiall, * Passado, and 
Madera Wines, the former are sweetish, the latter 
a palish Claret, very spritely and generous, two 
shillings a Bottle ; their best Ale is made of Wheat 
Malt, brought from >S'o^//6and Albany about three- 
score Miles from New- York by water; Syder 
twelve shillings the barrel ; their quaffing liquors 
are Rum -Punch and Brandy -punch, not com- 
pounded and adulterated as in England, but pure 
water and pure Nants.-f 

The Indians Diet. 

What they liv'd upon originally is hard to 
determine, unless we recur to St. Jolm Baptisfs 
extemporary Diet in the Wilderness, for they may 
be properly called Uof^tot^X i. e. Inhabitants of the 
Wood, so may be supposed to have had their v ictus 
parabilis, food that wanted no dressing; but 
stories of the first times being meerly conjectural, 
1 shall only speak what I wrote down from the 
best information. They have a tradition that 
their Corn was at first dropt out of the mouth of 
a Crow from the Skies ; just as Adam de Marisco** 

* Fiall = Fayal. The editor has not found "Passado" in any 
dictionary or encyclopedia. 

f Nants — brandy, from Nantes. 

XFoT oXajStot — the name applied to a sect of Indian devotees in 
Strabo. 

** Adam de Marisco was a learned Franciscan friar, a friend of 
Simon de Montfort and of bishop Grosseteste of Lincoln. His cor- 
respondence has been printed but not his formal treatises. 

— 42 — 



J 



W O L L E Y ' S N E IV YORK 

was wont to call the Law of Nature Helios'' s* Crow, 
something flying from Heaven with Provisions for 
OTir needs. They dig their ground with a Flint, 
called in their Language tom-a-hea-kan,-f and so 
put five or six grains into a hole the latter end of 
April or beginning of May, their Harvest is in 
October, their Corn grows like clusters of Grapes, 
which they pluck or break off with their hands, 
and lay it up to dry in a thin place, like unto our 
Cribs made of reed; when its well dryed they 
parch it, as we spreklej Beans and Pease, which is 
both a pleasant and a hearty food, and of a prodi- 
gious encrease, even a hundred fold, which is 
suppos'd as the highest degree of fruitfulness, 
which often reminded me of the Marquess of 
Woreester's Apophthegm of Christ's Miracle of 
five Loves and two Fishes, viz. that as few grains 
of Corn as will make five Loves being sowed in 
the earth will multiply and increase to such 
advantage as will feed 5000 with Bread, and two 
Fishes will bring forth so many fishes as will 
suffice so many mouths, and because such are so 
ordinary amongst us every day, we take no notice 
of them: this Indian Corn is their constant Viati- 
cum in their travels and War. Their Squaws or 



* Elijah's raven. See I. Kings, xvii., 4 ff. 

f The familiar " tomahawk." 

jThe editor has not been able to find this word in the dialect 
dictionaries or elsewhere. 

— 43 — 



W O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

Wives and Female Sex manage their Harvest, 
whilest the Men Hunt and Fish, and Fowl; of 
which they bring all varieties to Netr- York, and 
that so cheap that I remember a Venison bought 
for three shillings; their Rivers are plentifully 
furnish' d with fish, as Place, Pearch, Trouts, 
Eels, Bass and Sheepshead,* the two last are deli- 
cate Fish: They have great store of wild-fowl, as 
Turkeys, Heath-hens, Quails, Partridges, Pigeons, 
Cranes, Geese, Brants, Ducks, Widgeon, Teal and 
divers others : f And besides their natural Diet, 
they will eat freely with the Christians, as I 
observed once when we were at dinner at the 
Governor's Table, a Sackamaker or King came in 
with several of his Attendants, and upon invita- 
tion sat round upon the Floor (which is their 
usual posture) and ate of such Meat as was sent 
from the Table : amongst themselves when they 
are very hungry they will eat their Dogs, which 
are but young Wolves stolen from their damms, 
several of which I have seen following them, as 
our Dogs here, but they won't eat of our Dogs 
because they say we feed them with salt meat. 



* C/. Denton's " Brief Description," p. 43 : " These Rivers are very 
well furnished with Fish, as Basse, Sheepsheads, Place, Pearch, 
Trouts, Eels, Turtles and divers others. ' ' 

t For the enumeration of the wildfowl, WoUey also relies upon 
Denton: " Wild Fowl there is great store of, as Turkies, Heath- 
Hens, Quailes, Partridges, Pidgeons, Cranes, Geese of several sorts, 
Brants, Ducks, Widgeon, Teal and divers others.' ' — /did., p. 44. 

— 44 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 



which none or but few of the Indians love, for 
they had none before the Christians came: so 
unacquainted were they with Acids: They are of 
opinion that when they have ill success in their 
hunting, fishing, &c. their Menitto is the cause of 
it, therefore when they have good success they 
throw their fat into the fire as a Sacrifice ingem- 
inating Kenah Menitto. i. e. I thank you Me- 
nitto; their /1^/y^fr/?/ Kauns,* or time of sacrificing 
is at the beginning of winter, because then all 
things are fat, where a great many Sacka-makersf 
or Kings meet together, and Feast; every Nation 
or Tribe has its Ka ■kin-do- wet, or Minister, and 
every Sacka-maker gives his Ka-kin-do-wet 12 
fathom of Wampam mixt, and all that are able at 
that time throw down Wampam upon the ground 
for the Poor and Fatherless, of whom they have a 
great many. Now I am speaking of fishing and 
fowling it may not be improper to add some thing 

*Tht3 Kin-tau Kaun or Kintacaw is explained by O'Callaghan as 
simply a dance of which there were various phases according to the 
occasion. Bankers writes: " When we arrived at Gouanes, we heard 
a great noise, shouting and singing in the huts of the Indians. . . . 
They were all lustily drunk, raving, striking, shouting, jumping, 
fighting each other, and foaming at the mouth like raging wild 
beasts. . . . These Indians had canticoyed (gekmtekayt) there 
today, that is, conjured the devil and liberated a woman among 
them, who was possessed by him."— Bankers and Sluyter's " Jour- 
nal," pp. 273-275. Benton, p. 50, gives a description of the " Can- 
tica's." 

t " Sacka-maker " seems to be the same word as "Sagamore" 
used by the New England Indians. Bankers gives " Sachamor " as 
a variant of " Sackamacher, " p. 267. 

— 45 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 



about the art of catching Whales, which is thus, 
two Boats with six Men in each make a Company, 
viz. four Oars-men or Rowers; an Harpineer and 
a Steers-man; about Clirisimas is the season for 
Whaling, for then the Whales come from the 
North-east, Southerly, and continue till the latter 
end of March, and then they return again; about 
the Fin is the surest part for the Harpineer to 
strike: As soon as he is wounded, he makes all 
foam, with his rapid violent Course, so that if 
they be not very quick in clearing their main 
Warp to let him run upon the tow, which is a line 
fastned to the Harping-iron about 50 fathoms 
long, its a hundred to one he over-sets the Boat: 
As to the nature of a Whale, they copulate as 
Land-beasts, as is evident from the female Teats 
and Male's Yard, and that they Spawn as other 
Fishes is a vulgar error, Lam. 4. 3. even the Sea 
monsters draw out the breast they give suck to 
their young ones. For further its observable that 
their young Suckers come along with them their 
several courses. A Whale about 60 foot long 
having a thick and free Blubber may yield or 
make 40 or 50 barrels of Oyl, every Barrel contain- 
ing 31 or 32 Gallons at 20s. a Barrel, if it hath a 
good large bone it may be half a Tun or a Thou- 
sand weight, which may give 25/. Sterling old 
England Money. A Dubartus* is a Fish of the 

* Dubartus is a popular variant of Jubartes, a name given in the 
-46- 



W O L L £ V ' S NEW YORK 

shape of a Whale, which have teeth where the 
Whale has Bone, there are some 30 or 40 foot long, 
they are call'd by some the Sea- Wolf, of them the 
Whales are afraid, and do many times run them- 
selves ashore in flying from them, this is prov'd 
by the Whalers who have seen them seize upon 
them : the Blubber of the Whale will sometimes 
be half a yard thick or deep, if the Blubber be 
not fat and free, the Whale is call'd a Dry-skin; 
a Scrag-tail Whale is like another, only somewhat 
less, and his bone is not good, for it will not split, 
and it is of a mixt colour, their Blubber is as good 
for the quantity as others : I never heard of any 
Spermaceti Whales, either catch' d or driven upon 
these Shores, which Sperma as they call it (in the 
Bahama Islands) lies all over the body of these 
Whales, they have divers Teeth which may be 
about as big as a Man's wrist, which the ordinary 
Whales have not, they are very strong, fierce and 
swift, inlaid with Sinews all over their bodies. 
But to leave this Leviathan to his pastime in the 
deep, let us go a shore, and speak something of 
the nature of a Beaver, in hunting of which the 
Indians take great pains and pleasure ; the Beaver 
hath two sorts of Hair, one short soft and fine to 
protect him from the cold, the other long and 
thick, to receive the dirt and mire, in which they 

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the species of Rorqual found 
near New England. — " New Eng. Diet." 

— 47 — 



IV O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

are often busie and employed, and to hinder it 
from spoiling the skin ; his teeth are of a peculiar 
contexture, fit to cut boughs and sticks, with 
which they build themselves houses, and lodgings 
of several stories and rooms, to breed their young 
ones in : for which purpose nature hath also f ur- 
nish'd them with such forefeet as exactly resemble 
the feet of a Monkey, or the hands of a Man : their 
hind-feet proper for swimming, being like those 
of a Duck or Goose : As to the Castoreum or parts 
conceived to be bitten away to escape the Hunter, 
is a vulgar conceit, more owing to Juvenal* and 
other poetical fancies than to any traditional 
truth, or the Etymologies of some bad Grammar- 
ians, deriving Cast ore a castrando, whereas the 
proper Latin word is fiber, and castor, but borrowed 
from the Greek, so called (juasi yomtwij^ i. e. an'nnal 
ventrlcosum, from his swaggy and prominent 
belly : the particular account of which is in Dr. 
Brown's Vulgar Errors : f but to be short, the blad- 

* Juvenal in his twelfth satire, line 34, compares the frightened 
voyager who throws overboard his most precious possessions to 
lighten the ship to the beaver: 

"... fut se 
Eunuchum ipse facit cupiens evader e damno 
Testiculi.'' 

f Sir Thomas Brown's famous " Pseudodoxia Epidemica, . . . 
or Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors" was first published 
in 1646. Wolley quotes here from book iii., chap. 4. The Greek 
word should be ydirruip^ which in turn seems to have been a guess 
of Sir Thomas, as it is not recorded in Liddell and Scott's Lexicon. 

— 48 — 



W O L L B Y ' S NEW YORK 

ders containing the Castoreum are distinct from 
the Testicles or Stones, and are found in both 
Sexes ; with which when the Indians take any of 
them they anoint their Traps or Gins which they 
set for these Animals, to allure and draw them 
hither. 

As to the nature of Bears, their bringing forth 
their young inform ous and unshapen, I wholly ve- 
fer youtoDoGtoY Broicn's said Vuh/ar Errors ;* the 
substance of their legs is of a particular structure, 
of a thick fattish ligament, very good to eat, and 
so the Indians say of their body, which is often 
their diet ; when they hunt them, they commonly 
go two or three in company with Guns: for in case 
one shoot and miss the Bear will make towards 
them, so they shoot one after another to escape 
the danger and make their Game sure: But with- 
out Guns or any Weapon except a good Cudgel or 
Stick. I was one with others that have had very 
good diversion and sport with them, in an Orchard 
of Mr. John Robinson's^ of New- York ; where we 
follow' d a Bear from Tree to Tree, upon which he 
could swarm like a Cat ; and when he was got to 
his resting place, perch' d upon a high branch, we 
dispatc'd a youth after him with a Club to an 



*The title of chap. 6, book iii., in the "Vulgar Errors" is: 
" That a Bear brings forth her cubs informous or unshaped." 

f Mr. Robinson's orchard is supposed to have extended from about 
Cedar St. to Maiden Lane.— O'C. 

— 49 — 



W O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

opposite bough, who knocking his Paws, he comes 
grumbling down backwards with a thump upon 
the ground, so we after him again: His descend- 
ing backwards is a thing particularly remarkable: 
Of which I never read any account, nor know not 
to what defect in its structure to impute it: unless 
to the want of the intestinum caecum, which is the 
fourth Gut from the Ventricle or Stomach, and 
first of the thick Guts, which by reason of its 
divers infolds and turnings seems to have no end, 
and for that reason perhaps called cwcum or blind 
Gut: which being thick may probably detain the 
meat in the belly, in a descending posture: but 
these conjectures I wholly submit to the anatom- 
ical faculty : The Indians seems to have a great 
value for these animals, both for their skins and 
carkase-sake, the one good meat, the other good 
barter: And 1 may infer the same from a present 
which my acquaintance, old Claus the Indian, 
made me of a couple of well grown Bears Cubs, 
two or three days before I took Shiping for Eng- 
land, he thinking I would have brought them 
along with me, which present I accepted with a 
great deal of Ceremony (as we must everything 
from their hands) and ordered my Negro boy 
about 12 years old to tye them under the Crib by 
my Horse, and so left them to any ones acceptance 
upon my going aboard : I brought over with me a 
Grey Squirrel, a Parret and a Rockoon, the first 

— 50 — 



IV O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

the Lady Sherard had some years at Stopleford, 
the second, I left at London ; the last I brought 
along with me to Alford, where one Sunday in 
Prayer time some Boys giving it Nutts, it was 
choaked with a shell : It was by nature a very 
curious cleanly Creature, never eating anything 
but first washed it with its forefeet very carefully : 
the Parot was a pratling familiar bird, and divert- 
ing company in my solitary intervals upon our 
Voyage home. As I was talking with it upon the 
Quarter Deck, by a sudden rowling of the Ship, 
down drops Pall overboard into the Sea and cry'd 
out amain poor Pall: The Ship being almost be- 
calm' d, a kind Seaman threw out a Rope, and 
Pall seiz'd it with his Beak and came safe aboard 
again : This for my own diversion. As the Ser- 
pent was the most dangerous reptile in Paradise, 
so is the Rattle Snake in the Wilderness. It has 
its name from the configuration of its skin, which 
consists of several foldings which are all contracted 
dum lafef in hcrha, whilst it lies on the grass, or at 
the root of some rotten Tree, from whence it often 
surprizes the unwary traveller, and in throwing 
himself at his legs: The dilating of these folds 
occasion a rattling. Wherever it penetrates or 
bites it certainly poysons : they are in their great- 
est vigour in July; but the all-wise Providence 
which hath furnish' d every Climate with antidotes 
proper for their distempers and annoyances, has 

— 51 — 



IV O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

afforded great plenty of Penny-royal or Ditany, 
whose leaves bruised are very hot and biting upon 
the Tongue, which being tied in a clift of a long 
stick, and held to the nose of a Rattle Snake, will 
soon kill it by the smell and scent thereof ; the 
vertues of this Plant are so effectual, that we read 
by taking of it inwardly, or by outward applica- 
tion and by fume it will expell a dead Child. 
And the juice of it applied to wounds made by 
Sword, or the biting of venomous creatures is a 
present remedy : but besides this, I shall speak of 
another way of drawing out the poyson of these 
Creatures, which is by sucking of it out with their 
mouths, which one Indian will do for another, or 
for any Christian so poyson' d: A rare example of 
pure humanity, even equal to that of the Lady 
Elenor,* the Wife of King Edward the first, who 
when her Husband had three wounds given him 
with the poysoned Knife of Anzazlm the Saracen, 
two in the Arm and one near the Arm -pit, which 
by reason of the envenom' d blade were fear'd to 
be mortal, and when no Medicine could extract 
the poyson, his Lady did it with her Tongue, lick- 
ing dayly while her Husband slept, his rankling 
wounds, whereby they perfectly clos'd, and yet 



* This story first appears in an Englisla writer in Camden's " Britan- 
nia." It is derived from a Spanish author of the fifteenth century 
and is not found in the contemporary sources. See C. H. Pearson, 
" History of England during the Early and Middle Ages," vol. ii., 
p. 289. 

— 52 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

her self receiv'd no harm, so sovereign a medicine 
is a good Tongue, beyond the attractive power of 
Cupping Glasses and Cauteries. It were to be 
wish'd that where Penny-royal or Dittany is 
scarce or unknown, that every Country family 
understood the vertue of Rue or Herb-a-grace, 
which is held as a preservative against infectious 
Diseases, and cures the biting of a mad Dog or 
other venom, which would be no invasion upon, 
or striving with the dispensatory of Festal and 
Mortar, Still and Furnace; which legal faculties 
and professions being established and encourag'd 
by the wise constitutions of Governments, should 
not be interlop'd and undermin'd by persons of 
any other faculties, who are too apt to add tem- 
poral Pluralities to their spiritual Cures. Indeed 
it is a duty owing to human nature, to administer 
to and assist any one in forma pauperis, but to 
take a fee a reward or gratuity from a Naaman or 
a person able to employ the proper faculty, is to 
act the Gehazi, and not the Prophet Elisha ; Miles 
equiSf piscator aquis, an hammer for the Smith, an 
Homer for the School, let the Shooe-maker mind 
his Boot, and the Fisherman his Boat, the Divine 
his Sermon, and the Doctor his Salmon.* This 
digression I hope will be taken as it's written with 
an impartial deference to both professions : for as 
we are taught from Jesus the Son of Sirach, to 

* W illiam Salmon, 1 644-1 7 1 3, a quack ; author of many medical books. 

— 53 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

honor the physician for his skill, and the Apothe- 
cary for his confections, Ecclesiasticus chap. 38.1. 
8. so we are taught from a greater than he, to 
honor and revere the Doctors of souls, the holy 
Jesus the Son of God, for their Spiritual Cures 
and Dispensatories : But to return to the Indians, 
they have Doctors amongst them, whom they call 
Me-ta-ow, to whom every one gives something for 
there Cure, but if they die nothing at all, and 
indeed their skill in simples costs them nothing, 
their general remedy for all diseases is their 
sweating: Which is thus: when they find them- 
selves any ways indisposed, they make a small 
Wigwam or House, nigh a River- side, out of 
which in the extremity of the Sweat they plunge 
themselves into the Water; about which I dis- 
coursed with one of their Me-fa-oirs, and told him 
of the European way of Sweating in Beds, and 
rubbing our bodies with warm cloths: to which 
he answered he thought theirs the more effectual 
way : because the water does immediately stop all 
the passages (as he call'd the Pores) and at the 
same time wash off the excrementitious remainder 
of the Sweat, which he thought could not be so 
clearly done by friction or rubbing; which prac- 
tice I leave to the consideration or rather diversion 
of the Physicians and their Balneo's:* but this 
experiment prov'd Epidemical in Small-Pox, by 

* Balneo = bagnio, a bath. 

— 54 — 



W O L L £ V ' S NEW YORK 

hindering them from coming out. As to their 
way of living, it's very rudely and rovingly, shift- 
ing from place to place, according to their exigen- 
cies, and gains of fishing and fowling and hunting, 
never confining their rambling humors to any 
settled Mansions. Their Houses which they call 
Wigwams are as so many Tents or Booths covered 
with the barks of Trees, in the midst of which 
they have their fires, about which they sit in the 
day time, and lie in the nights ; they are so Satur- 
nine that they love extremes either to sit still or 
to be in robustous motions, spending their time in 
drowsie conferences, being naturally unenclin'd 
to any but lusory pastimes and exercises; their 
Diet in general is raw Flesh, Fish, Herbs, and 
Roots or such as the Elements produce without 
the concoction of the fire to prepare it for their 
Stomachs ; so their Horses are of a hardy tempera- 
ment, patient of hunger and cold, and in the 
sharp winter, when the ground is cover' d with 
Snow, nourish themselves with the barks of Trees, 
and such average* and herbage as they can find at 
the bottom of the Snow : But now I am speaking 
of Horses, I never could be inform' d nor ever did 
see an Indian to have been on Horseback: Of 
which there are great ranges runing wild in the 



* Average, a word used in Lincoln and other northern counties for 
the pasturage to be found after the harvest; stubble. — Wright's 
" Eng. Dialect Diet. " 

-55 — 



IV O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

Woods, to which they pretend no right: but leave 
them to the Dutch and EnglisJi Chevaliers to 
tame and manage; for which I often wondered 
there were not cheif Rangers, and a Chart a de 
Foresta to regulate such Games. When they travel 
by water, they have small Boats, which they call 
Canoes, made of the barks of Trees, so very nar- 
row, tliat two can neither sit nor stand a breast, 
and those they row with long paddles, and that 
so swiftly, that they'll skim away from a Boat 
with four Oars, I have taken a particular pleasure 
in plying these paddles, standing upright and 
steddy, which is their usual posture for dispatch : 
In which they bring Oysters and other fish for the 
Market : they are so light and portable that a Man 
and his Squaw will take them upon their Shol- 
ders and carry them by Land from one River to 
another, with a wonderful expedition; they will 
venture with them in a dangerous Current, even 
through Hell-gate it self, which lies in an arm of 
the Sea, about ten miles from New-York East- 
ward to New-England, as dangerous and as unac- 
countable as the Norway Whirl-pool or Maelstrom : 
in this Hell-gate which is a narrow passage, run- 
neth a rapid violent Stream both upon Flood and 
Ebb; and in the middle lieth some Islands of 
Rocks, upon which the Current sets so violently, 
that it threatens present Shipwrack; and upon 
the Flood is a large whirlpool, which sends forth a 

-56- 



W O L L B Y ' S NEW YORK 

continual hedious roaring;* it is a place of great 
defence against an Enemy coming that way, 
which a small Fortification would absolutely pre- 
vent, by forcing them to come in at the west-end 
of Long-Island by Sandy-Hool\ where Nutten- 
Island would force them within the command of 
the Fort of Neiv-York, which is one of the strong- 
est and best situated Garrisons in the North parts 
of America, and was never taken but once through 
the default of one Captain Manning, who in 
absence of the Governour suffered the Dutch to 
take it ; for which he was condemned to an Exile 
to a small Island from his name, call'd Manning^ s 
Island, f where I have been several times with the 
said Captain, whose entertainment was commonly 
a Bowl of Rum-Punch. In deep Snows the Indians 
with broad Shoos much in the shap of the round 
part of our Rackets which we use at Tennis : will 
travel without sinking in the least : at other times 
their common ordinary Shooes are parts of raw 
Beasts- skins tied about their feet: when they 
travel, for directing others who follow them, they 
lay sticks across, or leave some certain mark on 
Trees. Now I am speaking of the Indian Shooes, 

* This description of Hellgate is quoted from Denton, and the 
remarks following in regard to the defensive strength of the passage 
are adapted from the same.— Denton's " Brief Description, " p. 40. 

t Captain Manning's stepdaughter who inherited the island mar- 
ried Robert Blackwell and the property was thence called Black 
well's Island.— O'C. 

— 57 — 



W O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

I cannot forbear acquainting the Reader that I 
seldom or never observ'd the Dutch Women wear 
any thing but Slippers at home and abroad, which 
often reminded me of what I read in Dr. Ham- 
ond* upon the 6th of Ephesians, N. B. that the 
jEgyptian Virgins were not permitted to wear 
Shooes, /. e. not ready to go abroad : like the cus- 
tom among the Hebrews, whose women were 
call'd o£X(y£j9, domi portm and oixspnaai home-setters 
and SuHpuai house bearers, the Heathen painted 
before the modest women's doors Venus sitting 
upon a Snail, quce domi porta vocatur, called a 
House bearer, to teach them to stay at home, and 
to carry their Houses about with them. So the 
Virgins were called by the Hebrews Gnalamoth, 
absconditce, hid, and the places of their abodes 
7:apdrjvwva\ cellw VirginaUs, Virgins Cells. Con- 
trary to these are Whores Pro. 7. 11. her feet 
abide not in her house, therefore the Chaldees 
call her Niphcath-hara going abroad, and an Harlot 
the Daughter of an Harlot, egredientem filiam egre- 
dientis, a goer forth, the Daughter of a goer forth ; 
and when Dinah went out to see the Daughters 
of the Land, and was ravish' d by Sichem : Simeon 
and Levi cry out, should he deal with our Sister 
as with an Harlot, which the Targum renders, an 
sicut exemdem for as: They have another custom 
differing from other Nations. They feast freely 

* Henry Hammond, 1 605-1 660. 
-58- 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

and merrily at the Funeral of any Friend, to 
which I have been often invited and sometimes a 
Guest, a custom derived from the Gentiles to the 
latter Jews, according to which says Josephus of 
Archelaiis, he mourned seven* days for his Father, 
and made a sumptuous Funeral Feast for the mul- 
titude, and he adds that this custom was the 
impoverishing of many Families among the Jews, 
and that upon necessity, for if a Man omitted it, 
he was accounted no pious Man. The Dutch eat 
and drink very plentifully at these Feasts; but I 
do not remember any Musick or Minstrels, or 
7iionumentarn chorcmhe mentioned by Apuleius, or 
any of the Musick mentioned by Ovid de fastis. 
Cantahis moestis tibia fimerihus. 
So that perhaps it may be in imitation of David's 
example, who as soon as his child was dead, 
wash'd and anointed himself and ate his bread as 
formerly, 2 Sam. 12. 20. In all these Feasts I 
observ'd they sit Men and Women intermixt, and 
not as our English do Women and Men by them- 
selves apart. 

Of the Indians Marriages and Burials. 

When an Indian has a mind to a woman (asking 
the consent of Parents) he gives her so many 
Fathom of Wampam according to his ability, 
then his betrothed covers her face for the whole 

*" Sevens" in original edition. 

— 59 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

year before she is married, which put me in mind 
of Bfhekah, who took a veil and covered her self 
when she met Isaac, Gen, 24. 65. which veil (saith 
TeHullian de velandis virginibus) was a token of her 
modesty and subjection. The Husband doth not 
lie with his Squaw or Wife, whilst the Child has 
done Sucking, which is commonly two years, for 
they say the Milk will not be good if they get 
Children so fast. They bury their friends sitting 
upon their heels as they usually sit, and they put 
into their graves with them a Kettle, a Bow and 
Arrows, and a Notas or Purse of Wampani ; they 
fancy that after their death they go to the South- 
ward, and so they take their necessaries along 
with them ; or perhaps like the uncircumcis' d in 
Ezek. 32. 27. who went down to the Grave with 
Weapons of War, and laid their Swords under their 
heads, the ensigns of Valor and Honor: as tho 
they would carry their strength to the grave with 
them, contrary to that of the Apostle, // is soivn 
a weak body, 1 Cor. 15. They mourn over their 
dead commonly two or three days before they 
bury them : they fence and stockado their graves 
about, visiting them once a year, dressing the 
weeds from them, many times they plant a certain 
Tree by their Graves which keeps green all the 
year: They all believe they shall live as they do 
now, and think they shall marry, but must not 
work as they do here; they hold their Soul or 

— 6o — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 



Spirit to be the breath of Man: They have a Tra- 
dition amongst them that about five hundred 
years agoe, a Man call'd {Wadi que oiv) came 
down from above, upon a Barrel' s-head, let down 
by a Rope, and lived amongst them sixty years, 
who told them he came from an happy place, 
where there were many of their Nations, and so 
he left them. And they have another Tradition 
of one Mero Nish, who had lain as dead sixteen 
days, all which time he was unburied, because 
he had a little warmth about his breast, and after 
sixteen days he lived again, in which interval he 
told them he had been in a fine place where he 
saw all that had been dead. Such Traditions as 
these ought to be lookt upon by the Professors 
of Christianity, as the Epileptick half moon Doc- 
trine of that grand Enthusiast Mahomet, beyond 
whose Tomb hanging in the air his Superstitious 
Arabians are not able to lift their minds to the 
Kingdom of Heaven: So that the Mahometans 
Tomb and the Indians Tub may stand upon the 
same bottom, as to their Credit and Tradition: 
and the Indians after their rising again to the 
Southward shall Marry, Eat and Drink, may 
plead as fair for them as the Mahometans earthly 
Paradise of Virgins with fairer and larger eyes 
than ever they beheld in this world, and such 
like sensual enjoyments, which its even a shame 
to mention: or the Jews worldly Messiah, who 

— 6i — 



W O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

ought all to be the dayly objects of our Christian 
prayers and endeavours for their Conversion, that 
they may believe and obtain a better Resurrec- 
tion, even the Nermnah the day of Consolation, 
when we shall be so wonderfully changed as to be 
fit Companions for Angels, and reign with our 
Saviour in his Glory, who only hath the words of 
eternal life. In order to which I shall endeavour 
to offer some proposals in a Second Part, de propa- 
ganda fide; and so conclude this with some mixt 
occasional observations, with all due respects to 
some modern Criticks: Whether Adam or Eve 
sewed their fig-leave together with needle and 
thread is not my business to be so nice as rem 
istam acu tangere: But this I am well inform' d of. 
That the Indians, make thread of Nettles pill'd 
when full ripe, pure white and fine, and likewise 
another sort of brownish thread of a small weed 
almost like a Willow, which grows in the Wood, 
about three foot high, which is called Indian 
Hemp, of which they likewise make Ropes and 
bring them to sell, which wears as strong as our 
Hemp, only it wont endure wet so well, of this 
they make their Baggs, Purses or Sacks which 
they call Notas, which word signifies a Belly, and 
so they call any thing that's hollow to carry any 
thing. Their work is weaving with their fingers, 
they twist all their thread upon their Thighs, 
with the palm of their hands, they interweave 

— 62 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

their Porcupine quills into their baggs, their 
Needles they make of fishes or small beast bones, 
and before the Christians came amongst them, 
they had Needles of Wood, for which Nut-wood 
was esteemed best, called Um-be-re-mak-qua, their 
Axes and Knives they made of white Flint-stones ; 
and with a Flint they will cut down any tree as 
soon as a carpenter with a Hatchet, which experi- 
ment was tried of late years by one Mr. Crabb of 
Alford in Lincolnshire, for a considerable wager, 
who cut down a large Tree with a flint, handled 
the Indian way, with an unexpected art and 
quickness. They make their Candles of the same 
wood that the Masts of Ships are made of, which 
they call Woss-ra-neck. Thus far of the Indians, 
in this first part, which were part of my own per- 
sonal observations, and other good informations 
from one Claus an Indian, otherwise called Nich- 
olas by the English, but Clans by the Dutch, 
with whom I was much acquainted, and likewise 
from one Mr. John Edsal the constant Interpreter 
betwixt the Governor and the Indians, and all 
others upon all important affairs, who was my 
intimate acquaintance, and his Son my Scholar 
and Servant, whose own hand-writing is in many 
of my Memorials : One thing I had almost forgot, 
1. e. when the Indians look one another's Heads 
they eat the Lice and say they are wholesome, 
never throwing any away or killing them : In a 



IV O L L £ Y ' S NEW YORK 

word as they have a great many manly instincts 
of nature, so I observed them very civil and 
respectful both in their behaviour and entertain- 
ment ; I cannot say that ever I met any company 
of them, which I frequently did in my walks out 
of the Town, but they would bow both Head and 
Knee, saying here comes the Sacka-makers Kak in- 
do-wet, i. e. the Governours Minister, whom I 
always saluted again with all due ceremony. They 
are faith-guides in the woods in times of Peace, 
and as dangerous enemies in times of War. Their 
way of fighting is upon Swamps, i. e. Bogs and 
Quagmires, in sculking Ambushes, beyond Trees 
and in Thickets, and never in a body. When 
they intend War they paint their faces black, but 
red is the sun-shine of Peace. There are several 
Nations which may be more properly called Tribes 
of Indians. 

Rockoway upon the South of Jamaica upon 
Long -Island, the 1. 

Sea-qua-ta-eg, to the South of Huntingdon, 
the 2. 

Unckah-chau-ge, Brooke-haven, the 3. 

Se-tauck, Seatauchet North, the 4. 

Ocqua-baug, South-hold to the North, the 5. 

Shin-na-cock, Southampton, the greatest Tribe, 
the 6. 

Mim-tauck, to the Eastward of East-Hampton, 
the?. 

-64- 



W O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 
All these are Long-Island Indians. 

The Tribes which are Friends. 

Top-pawi, the greatest, which consists of an 
hundred and fifty fighting young Men. It' s call' d 
the greatest because they have the greatest Sachim 
or Sacka-uiaker, i. e. King, whose name is Malm- 
shee. 

The Second is Ma-nissing, which lies westward 
from Top-paun, two days Journey; it consists of 
three hundred fighting Men, the Sacka-makers 
name is called Taum-ma-hau-Quauk. 

The Third, Wee-qtioss-cah-chau. i. e. Westches- 
ter Indians, which consists of seventy fighting 
Men, the Sacka-makers name is Wase-sa-kin-now. 

The Fourth, Na-ussin, or Neversinks, a 'Tribe of 
very few, the Sacka-makers name is Onz-zeech. 

May the lover of Souls bring these scattered 
desert people home to his own Flock. 

To return from the Wilderness into New- York, 
a place of as sweet and agreeable air as ever I 
breathed in, and the Inhabitants, both English 
and Dutch very civil and courteous as I may speak 
by experience, amongst whom I have often wished 
my self and Family, to whose tables I was fre- 
quently invited, and always concluded with a 
generous bottle of Madera. I cannot say I ob- 
served any swearing or quarrelling, but what was 
easily reconciled and recanted by a mild rebuke, 

-65- 



W O L L £ V ' S NEW YORK 

except once betwixt two Dutch Boors (whose usual 
oath is Sacrament) which abateing the abusive 
language, was no unpleasant Scene. As soon as 
they met (which was after they had alarm' d the 
neighbourhood) they seized each other's hair with 
their forefeet, and down they went to the Sod, 
their Vrows and Families crying out because they 
could not part them, which fray happening against 
my Chamber window, I called up one of my 
acquaintance, and ordered him to fetch a kit full 
of water and discharge it at them, which immedi- 
ately cool'd their courage, and loosed their grap- 
ples: so we used to part our Mastiffs in England. 
In the same City of New- York where I was Minis- 
ter to the English, there were two other Ministers 
or Domines as they were called there, the one a 
Lutheran a German or High-Dutch, the other a 
Calvinist an Hollander or Loiv- Dutchman, who 
behav'd themselves one towards another so shily 
and uncharitably as if Luther and Calvin had 
bequeathed and entailed their virulent and 
bigotted Spirits upon them and their heirs forever. 
They had not visited or spoken to each other with 
any respect for six years together before my being 
there, with whom I being much acquainted, I 
invited them both with their Vrows to a Supper 
one night unknown to each other, with an obliga- 
tion, that they should not speak one word in 
Dutch, under the penalty of a Bottle of Medera, 



VV O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

alledging I was so imperfect in that Language 
that we could not manage a sociable discourse, so 
accordingly they came, and at the first interview 
they stood so appaled as if the Ghosts of Luther 
and Calvin had suffered a transmigration, but the 
amaze soon went off with a salve tu qttoque, and a 
Bottle of Wine, of which the Calvin ist Domine 
was a true Carouzer, and so we continued our 
Mensalia the whole meeting in Latine, which they 
both spoke so fluently and promptly that I blush' d 
at my self with a passionate regret, that I could 
not keep pace with them ; and at the same time 
could not forbear reflecting upon our English 
Schools and Universities (who indeed write Latine 
Elegantly) but speak it, as if they were confined 
to Mood and Figure, Forms, and Phrases, whereas 
it should be their common talk in their Seats and 
Halls, as well as in their School Disputations, and 
Themes. This with all deference to these reposi- 
tories of Learning. As to the Didch Language 
in which I was but a smatterer, I think it lofty, 
majestic and emphatical, especially the German 
or High-Dutch, which as far as I understand it is 
very expressive in the Scriptures, and so underived 
that it may take place next the Oriental Lan- 
guages, and the Septuagint: The name of the 
Cahinist was Neivenhouse* of the Lutheran Bern- 
hardiis Fraz'ms, who was of a Gentile Personage, 

* Wilhelmus van Nieuwenhuyzen. 

-67- 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

and a very agreeable behaviour in conversation, 
I seldom knew of any Law-suits, for indeed Attor- 
neys were denyed the liberty of pleading: The 
English observed one anniversary custom, and 
that without superstition, I mean the strenarum 
commereium, as Suetonius calls them, a neighbourly 
commerce of presents every New- Years day. 

Totus ah auspicio, ne foret annus iners. Ovid. 
Fastor. 

Some would send me a Sugar-loaf, some a pair 
of Gloves, some a Bottle or two of Wine. In a 
word, the Enc/lisli Merchants and Factors (whose 
names are at the beginning) were very unanimous 
and obliging. There was one person of Quality, 
by name Mr. Bussel, younger brother to the late 
Lord Russel, sl gentleman of a comely Personage, 
and very obliging, to whose lodgings I was often 
welcome : But I suppose his Fortune was that of a 
younger Brother according to Henrif the VIII' s. 
Constitution, who abolished and repealed the 
Gavelkind custom, whereby the Lands of the 
Father were equally divided among all his Sons, 
so that ever since the Cadets or younger Sons of 
the English Nobility and Gentry, have only that 
of the Poet to bear up their Spirits. 

Sum pauper, mm culpa mea est, sed culpa j^arentutn 
Qui mefratre meo non ge?iuere prius. 
In my rude English rhiming thus. 

— 68 — 



W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

I'm poor (my dad) but that's no fault of mine, 
If any fault there he, the fault is thine, 
Because thou did'st not give us Gavelkine. 

The Dutch in New -York observe this custom, an 
instance of which I remember in one FredetHck 
Philips the richest Mi in Heer in that place, who 
was said to have whole Hogsheads of Indian 
Money or Wampam, who having one Son and 
Daughter, I was admiring what a heap of Wealth 
the Son would enjoy, to which a Dutch Man 
replied, that the Daughter must go halves, for so 
was the manner amongst them, they standing 
more upon Nature than Names; that as the root 
communicates it self to all its branched, so should 
the Parent to all his off- spring which are the Olive 
branches round about his Table. And if the case 
be so, the minors and infantry of the best Fami- 
lies might wish they had been born in Kent,* 
rather than in such a Christendom as entails upon 
them their elder Brother's old Cloths, or some 
superannuated incumber' d reversion, but to invite 
both elder and younger Brothers to this sweet 
Climate of New-York, when they arrive there, if 
they are enclined to settle a Plantation, they may 
purchase a tract of ground at a very small rate, 
in my time at two-pence or three-pence the Acre, 

* The custom of gavelkind, securing in the case of intestacy the 
equal division of landed property among all the sons, has survived 
in Kent to the present day. 

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W O L L E V ' S NEW YORK 

for which they have a good Patent or Deed from 
the Governor. Indeed its all full of Wood, which 
as it will require some years before it be fit for 
use, so the burning of it does manure and melio- 
rate the Soil; if they be forMerchandice, they pay 
for their freedom in New-York hut six Bevers or 
an equivalent in Money, i. e. three pounds twelve 
shillings, and seventeen shillings Fees: And 
Goods that are brought over commonly return 
cent, per cent. i. e. a hundred pounds laid out in 
London will commonly yield or afford 200 pounds 
there. Fifty per cent, is looked upon as an indif- 
ferent advance, the species of payment and credit* 
or trust is sometimes hazardous, and the Com- 
modities of that Country will yield very near as 
much imported into England, for three and forty 
pounds laid out in Bever and other Furrs, when 
I came away, I received about four-score in Lo7i- 
don ; indeed the Custom upon the skins is high, 
which perhaps might raise it to eight and forty 
pounds, or fifty ; as for what I had occasion, some 
things were reasonable, some dear. I paid for 
two load of Oats in the straw 18 shillings to one 
Mr. Henry Dyer : to the same for a load of Pease- 
straw six shillings: paid to Thomas Davis for 
shooing my Horse three shillings, for in that place 
Horses are seldom, some not shod at all, their 
Hoofs by running in the woods so long before 

* Misprinted ' ' cerdit' ' in the original edition. 
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W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

they are backed are like Flints: Paid to Deride, 
i. e. Richard Serah's Son for a load of Hay twelve 
shillings: Paid to Denys Fisher's Son a Carpen- 
ter, for two days work in the Stable eight shil- 
lings: for a Curry Comb and Horse-brush four 
shillings: to Jonathan the Barber \l. is. the year: 
to the Shoo-maker for a pair of Boots and Shooes 
11. 5s. to the Washer-woman or Laundress 1/. 5s. 
M. the Year. So all Commodities and Trades are 
dearer or cheaper according to the plenty of im- 
portation from England and other parts: The 
City of Neiv- York in my time was as large as some 
Market Towns with us, all built the London way; 
the Garrison side of a high situation and a pleas- 
ant Prospect, the Island it stands on all a level 
and Champain; the diversion especially in the 
Winter season used by the Dutch is aurigation, 
i. e. riding about in Wagons which is allowed by 
Physicians to be a very healthful exercise by 
Land. And upon the Ice its admirable to see 
Men and Women as it were flying upon their 
Skates from place to place, with Markets upon 
their Heads and Backs. In a word, it's a place 
so every way inviting that our English Gentry, 
Merchants and Clergy (especially such as have the 
natural Stamina of a consumptive propagation in 
them ; or an Hypocondriacal Consumption) would 
flock thither for self preservation. This I have 
all the reason to affirm, and believe from the 



W O L L £ V ' S NEW YORK 

benign effectual injBuence it had upon my own 
constitution; but oh the passage, the passage 
thither, hie labor, hoc opus est: there is the timorous 
objection: the Ship may founder by springing a 
Leak, be wreckt by a Storm or taken by a 
Pickeroon : which are plausible pleas to flesh and 
blood, but if we would examine the bills of mor- 
tality and compare the several accidents and 
diseases by the Land, we should find them almost 
a hundred for one to what happens by Sea, which 
deserves a particular Essay, and if we will believe 
the ingenious Dr. Carr in his Epistolce Medicinales, 
there is an Emetick Vomitory vertue in the Sea- 
water it self, which by the motion of the Ship 
operates upon the Stomach and ejects whatever is 
offensive, and so extimulates and provokes or recov- 
ers the appetite, which is the chiefest defect in 
such Constitutions : and besides, there is a daily 
curiosity in contemplating the wonders of the 
Deep, as to see a Whale wallowing and spouting 
cataracts of Water, to see the Dolphin that hier- 
oglyphick of celerity leaping above water in chase 
of the flying fish, which I have sometimes tasted 
of as they flew aboard, where they immediately 
expire out of their Element; and now and then 
to hale up that Canibal of the Sea, I mean the 
Shark, by the bate of a large gobbet of Beef or 
Pork; who makes the Deck shake again by his 
flapping violence, and opens his devouring mouth 

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W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK 

with double rows of teeth, in shape like a Skate 
or Flare as we call them in Cambridge ; of which 
dreadful fish 1 have often made a meal at Sea, 
but indeed it was for want of other Provisions. 
When I came for England in a Quaker's Ship, 
whose Master's name was Heathcot;* who, when 
he had his plum Broths, I and the rest were glad 
of what Providence sent us from day to day, our 
water and other Provisions, which he told us 
upon going aboard were fresh and newly taken 
in, were before we arrived in England so old and 
nauseous that we held our noses when we used 
them, and had it not been for a kind Rundlet of 
Medera Wine, which the Governor's Lady pre- 
sented me with, it had gone worse: but such a 
passage may not happen once in a hundred times ; 
for as I went from England to New -York, 1 faired 
very plentifully both with fresh and season' d 
meat, & good drink, Sheep killed according to our 
occasion, and likewise Poultry coop'd up and 
corn'd and cram'd, which made the common Sea 
men so long for a novelty, that as I went down 
betwixt Decks I observ'd two Terpaulins tossing 
something in a Blanket, and being very inquisi- 

*" George Heathcote ... a sturdy Quaker who, ' on the first 
of the sixth month, 1672,' being owner and commander of a ship, 
was imprisoned by Governor Bellingham of Massachusetts, ' for 
delivering him a letter and not putting of his hat. "... He was 
master of the ' Pink Hopewell ' in 1679, which vessel cleared for Lon- 
don July 17, 1680." — O'C. It was on this voyage that Mr. WoUey 
sailed with him. 

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W O L L £ V ' S NEW YORK 

tive they told me they were roasting a Cockerill, 
which was by putting a red-hot Bullet into it 
after it was trust, which would fetch all the 
Feathers off and roast well enough for their Stom- 
achs, at which I smiling went again above-deck, 
and made it a publick and pardonable diversion ; 
but as to the Sharks, as our Ship was one day 
becalm' d, and four of our Seamen for diversion 
Swimming about the Vessel, we on board espied 
two or three of them making towards their prey, 
we all shouted and made what noise we could, 
and scared them (tho with much ado) from seizing 
the Men, whilst we drew them up by ropes cast 
out ; when they are sure of their prey they turn 
themselves upon their backs & strike their Prey, 
but in case a Man has the courage to face them in 
swimming they make away, so awful is the aspect 
of that noble animal Man : but suppose his Cour- 
age or his Strength fails him, and he becomes a 
prey to any of the watry host, what difference 
betwixt being eaten by fish or by worms at the 
Christian Resurrection, when the Sea must give 
up its Dead, and our scattered parts be recollected 
into the same form again; but to conclude all 
with an Apophthegm* of the Lord Bacon'^, viz. 
' One was saying that his Great-Grand-father 
' Grand-father and Father died at Sea. Said 
' another that heard him, and as I were you, I 

♦This is No. 297 in Bacon's " Apophthegms," or anecdotes. 
— 74 — 



W O L L £ V ' S NEW YORK 

'would never come to Sea; why saith he, where 
' did your Great-Grand-father and Ancestors die? 
' he answered where but in their Beds, saith the 
' other, and 1 were as you 1 would never go to Bed. 
But for all this I durst venture a knap in a Cabbin 
at Sea, or in a Hammock in the Woods. So 
Reader a good Night. 

Opere in tanto fas est obrepere somnum. 
FINIS . 



— 75 — 



3EP 



1 Cl'CY ;--:L. i"0 Cfl"' 

SEP. r^' 190. 



OCT, 3 Kro 



